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New Wanaka subdivision sites snapped up in frenzied sell-down

The biggest single sell-down of residential property in Wanaka for the past 11 years saw some 45 sections bought in the space of three hours over the weekend.

The frenzied sell-down of sections within the Northlake subdivision on Wanaka’s northern town centre fringe saw land flying out the door for between $192,500 – $240,000 a site. The plots of land ranged in size from 285 square metres to 740 square metres.

Saturday’s frenetic three hour real estate bonanza was the biggest single sale of residential land in the area since the 2004 campaign which saw the Peninsula Bay subdivision snapped up. Marketing of the Northlake subdivision sell down was jointly undertaken by Bayleys Wanaka and Bayleys Locations Queenstown.

Bayleys Wanaka director Mat Andrews said the buyer demographics for Northlake encompassed all sectors of the market – from first home buyers through to investors.

Marketing of the plots commenced earlier in November when two ‘open home’ days were held on-site to give prospective buyers an idea of views and location.

Some 200 groups attended the two open days. Interested parties then paid $2000 deposits to have first pick of the sites as they came onto to the market on Saturday.

“Most of the buyers were from the immediate Wanaka region. That numbers was split approximately 70/30 between intended owner/occupiers and investors,” Mr Andrews said.

“In addition, we had three sales to New Zealand ex-pat’s based offshore, six sales to buyers registered in rural Otago and Southland, three to buyers registered in Invercargill, three to buyers registered in Queenstown, and two to buyers registered in Dunedin.”

As a result of the huge demand on sale day, the developer bought forward the planned release of stage two. At the close of the day there were only five sections left for sale in stage one and 18 in stage two. Prices for the remaining lots start at $197,500.

Mr Andrews said he expected to have purchase contracts on the majority of the remaining stage one sections, and a substantial portion of the stage two sites, by the end of the year.

“With a tight land supply so close to Wanaka township, we knew there was going to be a strong demand for the Northlake sections, however Saturday’s sales statistics were far beyond both ours and the vendor’s expectations,” he said.

“The benchmark has now been well and truly set in terms of pricing levels, and reflects that it was pitched at the correct level. We had three salespeople operating out of the temporary office on-site and there was a queue of buyers waiting in front of their desks to sign the sale and purchase agreements.

”It’s certainly been a long time since we’ve seen anything like this level of activity in Wanaka over such a short concentrated period of three hours.”

Mr Andrews expected house building to start in the Northlake development in October next year – allowing for utility services such as electricity, telecommunications cabling, water and sewerage pipes, to be laid over the intervening period.

The Northlake Village subdivision consists of 900 sections to be sold down over a 10 – 15 year period. The Village hub will include a child care facility, medical centre, convenience store, post office boxes, leisure centre, two tennis courts, children’s playground and swimming pool.

Construction of the commercial premises would also begin at the same time, Mr Andrew said, with tenancies to those premises being offered to the market early next year.